For nearly three decades, hip-hop relics such as vinyl records, turntables, microphones and boom boxes have collected dust in boxes and attics.

On Tuesday, owners of such items - including pioneering hip-hop artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Fab 5 Freddy - will blow that dust off and carry them to a Manhattan hotel to turn them over to National Museum of American History officials.

The museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is announcing its plans to embark on a collecting initiative, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: the Beat, the Rhymes, the Life." The project, the beginnings of a permanent collections, will gather objects that trace hip-hop's origins in the Bronx in the 1970s to its current global reach. It is expected to cost as much as $2 million and take up to five years to complete.

Museum officials have yet to raise the money, which will come from private donors. They will use the funds to pay for artifacts, record oral histories, hold consultations with advisory groups and mount an exhibit telling hip-hop's story.

Given the saturation of "Moguls" in that industry, raising $2mill should not be too tough. If Jay-Z, Master P, Puffy, and Fiddy all put up 500k they'd be there already, and it would be no sweat for those guys. Or what about the original hip-hop kingpin, Russell Simmons (cue Beastie Boys lyric), who could certainly fund the whole project without batting an eyelash. Factor in Dr. Dre, who long after he got rich on NWA continued to amass a fortune producing the likes of Snoop and Eminem. Yeah, if the Smithsonian cannot come up with the paltry funds necessary to complete this exhibit it will not be for a lack of money made off of hip-hop.